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• Equality regulator recommends more detailed assessment of the Bill’s potential impact on people with protected characteristics.
• EHRC calls for pressure to prematurely end one’s life because of societal attitudes and a lack of services to be considered by those carrying out assisted dying assessments.
• Advice to peers highlights the need for a clear and unambiguous definition of terminal illness.

Assisted dying is a sensitive matter of conscience, which evokes strong views among those with deeply held religious, personal or philosophical beliefs on both sides of the debate.

As Britain’s equality regulator, and a National Human Rights Institution, the EHRC does not take a position in favour of or opposed to assisted dying. Instead, it has shared an analysis of the equality and human rights implications of the proposed legislation with members of the House of Lords.

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

“This is complex legislation, with serious implications for equality and human rights in this country. Any assisted dying bill must uphold everyone’s rights, with safeguards put in place to avoid discrimination against those with protected characteristics.

“We believe that a Private Member’s Bill is an unsuitable vehicle for such significant legislation, because it is not subject to the same pre-legislative scrutiny that a government-sponsored draft bill would have undergone, with expert evidence considered earlier in the process.

“This summer the UK government published an equality impact assessment (EIA) and a human rights memorandum to assist the House of Lords’ consideration of the legislation. These important documents were not available to assist MPs’ earlier scrutiny of the legislation, which only reinforces the need for peers to have ample time to consider expert advice carefully and effectively examine the implications of the bill.”

The EHRC continues to highlight that the legislation is likely to have particular impacts on people with certain protected characteristics, especially older and disabled people.

The government’s EIA provides some analysis of the bill’s potential impact on different protected characteristics and acknowledges the need for ongoing equality monitoring if it becomes law.

However, to enable effective scrutiny by the House of Lords in the meantime, peers would benefit from more detailed information on the potential impacts on people with the protected characteristics of age, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race and disability (including mental ill-health). The EHRC has called for this analysis to include relevant evidence on health inequalities between different groups and potential disparities in access to assisted dying, as well as any evidence gaps.

Highlighting key recommendations made by the EHRC, Baroness Falkner continued:

“The focus of the bill is assisted dying for adults who are terminally ill. We are conscious of the great difficulty in accurately determining how long someone with a terminal illness will live. Further consideration should be given to Clause 2, which defines when a person is terminally ill for the purposes of the legislation. This is essential to ensuring that its provisions are clear and unambiguous, so that medical professionals can implement them effectively and consistently across the country.

“The bill requires the Secretary of State to lay a progress report before Parliament a year after the bill has passed, including an assessment of health services for those with end-of-life care needs. But compliance with the UK’s international legal obligations could be improved if an assessment of health and social care for terminally ill people is conducted before the legislation comes into force, with consideration for specialist palliative care services and their availability to people with different protected characteristics.

“While the bill provides safeguards against a person being coerced or pressured to end their own life by another individual, we know that disabled people, older people and especially older disabled people, may feel pressured to prematurely end their lives by societal attitudes and a lack of the support and services they need. In order to prevent coercion, this broader understanding should be considered in the assessments undertaken by doctors and assisted dying review panels.”

A clause added during the Commons stage (Clause 55), places a duty on the Secretary of State to consult parties – including the EHRC – before making regulations relating to individual’s declarations, doctor’s assessments and authorisations, and final statements. 

The EHRC’s briefing notes that while the opportunity for further scrutiny is welcome, continued constraints on its resources and other potential increases in its responsibilities may limit the equality regulator’s ability to contribute meaningfully to consultations on these regulations as anticipated.

Read: Parliamentary briefing – Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill - House of Lords Second Reading

• The Equality and Human Rights Commission shared its latest briefing on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill with peers on Friday 5 September, a week in advance of second reading in the House of Lords on 12 September 2025.
• This is the third time the EHRC has provided advice to the UK Parliament during the passage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. In November 2024 the EHRC provided a briefing for second reading in the House of Commons. The EHRC’s Chairwoman, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, then gave oral evidence to the Bill Committee in January 2025. The EHRC previously provided written evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee’s 2022 to 2023 inquiry into assisted dying. This response emphasised that high-quality, rights-based palliative care, available to all who need it, should be a prerequisite for the consideration of legislation on assisted dying.
• The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill applies to England and Wales only. The EHRC has also provided advice to MSPs considering the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, mostly recently in a Stage 1 briefing in May 2025.